Kris Needs Book order

Babble On An' Ting: Alex Paterson's Incredible Journey Beyond The Ultraworld With The Orb is the first full account of one of the last century's most fascinatingly idiosyncratic musical pioneers.

The narrative captures the vibrant music scene of 1969 through Kris Needs' personal experiences, detailing his encounters with iconic bands and artists like Hendrix, Bowie, and the Stones. The first half focuses on pivotal events and the birth of significant music venues, while the latter half reflects his rapid maturation amidst a backdrop of legendary concerts and friendships. Interwoven with themes of loss and nostalgia, the writing process is marked by the grief of losing his partner, adding depth to his reflections on life and music during a transformative year.

Just A Shot Away:69 Revisited is veteran author-journalist Kris Needs' highly- personal account of 1969 as he experienced it happening; from starting the year as a wide-eyed 14-year-old Rolling Stones/Hendrix nut and turning 15 the day Brian Jones died to becoming part of the UK's longest-running club and befriending its hottest new band.

The book charts Suicide's uncompromising roller coaster from formative days in performance art and avant garde experimentation to chaotic early shows at drug-infested downtown hotbed the Project of Living Artists. With an introduction by Lydia Lunch.

The biography of George Clinton, one of music's most fascinating, colourful and innovative characters, featuring a new cover and foreword by critic Miles Marshall Lewis.

This book provides a personal insight into the life of Joe Strummer, via his closest friends and the band members who knew him best. Exclusive interviewees include Mick Jones, his songwriting partner and lead guitarist of The Clash, and Don Letts, the ex-Big Audio Dynamite member and filmmaker who recorded an extensive series of interviews with Strummer on video.His life history, his personal passions and politics, and, most of all, his musical influences, are examined from a number of personal perspectives. From the white-hot excitement of the gigs to the fervour of Strummer’s personal convictions, Joe Strummer & the Legend of The Clash gives a full account of the life and times of a true punk pioneer.From the birth of The Clash during the early days of the UK punk scene in 1976, when author Kris Needs first met the band at their raw fifth gig, to massive success as the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world during the early Eighties – all is recounted from the perspective of someone who was there, both as a fan and as a friend.

This biography of Primal Scream, by infamous rock journalist Kris Needs, is an incisive and impassioned account of one of the world’s wildest bands. Primal Scream anecdotes are numerous and unparalled in their hilarious excess. This unique brand of chaos usually occurs when they’re on the road, and has been witnessed at firsthand by the author. He has incorporated his experiences into a book which is as much a fly-on-the-wall witness as a group biography.However, Primal Scream’s reputation often overshadows their raison d’etre – the music. It is widely accepted that they made one of the greatest, most influential albums of all time in 1991’s Screamadelica, which redefined and eroded the divide between rock’n’roll and dance music. The supporting cast throughout their nineteen-year history reads like a who’s who of living legends: from Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Tom Dowd (the man who produced almost every great Stax/Atlantic soul record) and Memphis session icon Jim Dickinson, to Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, reggae luminaries Augustus Pablo and Adrian Sherwood, and Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.The Scream lays bare the band’s musical influences, examining their roots via exclusive interviews and detailed analysis of their albums.

Veteran British rock journalist Kris Needs cuts through the image to find the man at the centre of the ‘Keef’ myth. Titled after a song about Richards’ persecution by law enforcement in the 1970s, Keith Richards: Before They Make Me Run enlists the man himself to detail the highs and lows in the life of rock ’n’ roll’s ultimate survivor.With the help of an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Stones’ recorded catalogue and exclusive interviews with Keef himself, Needs charts a chaotically eventful life that found its salvation in the blues. Beginning with his suburban working-class upbringing in England, his fateful meeting with a young Mick Jagger, and the whirlwind career that saw Jagger/Richard(s) become the only songwriting credit to rival Lennon/McCartney, the author takes a close-up look at every stage of his subject’s life: The R&B fanatic kid, hellbent on spreading the gospel of the blues; the drug-sodden Satanic Majesty, swashbuckling his way through the establishment’s law courts; the relentless rhythm machine whose heroin addiction almost slowed his momentum for good; the wizened elder statesman expounding on his wry philosophy through a haze of cigarette smoke and vodka. Most integral of all is that more elusive character, Keith Richards the Man.